2 Fast 2 Furious

2 Fast 2 Furious is a 2003 action film directed by John Singleton from a screenplay by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, based on a story by Brandt, Haas, and Gary Scott Thompson. It is the sequel to The Fast and the Furious (2001) and the second installment in the Fast & Furious franchise. The film stars Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner alongside Tyrese Gibson, Eva Mendes, Cole Hauser, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, and James Remar. In the film, ex-LAPD officer Brian O'Conner and his friend Roman Pearce (Gibson) go undercover for the United States Customs Service and the FBI to apprehend drug lord Carter Verone (Hauser) in exchange for the erasure of their criminal records.
A second Fast & Furious film was planned after the box office success of its predecessor in 2001, and was confirmed with the returns of Walker and producer Neal H. Moritz. Vin Diesel and Rob Cohen, the co-star and director of the first film, were unable to return; Gibson and Singleton joined the cast in their absence in 2002. To canonically account for Diesel's departure, the short film The Turbo Charged Prelude for 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) was produced and released. Principal photography for 2 Fast 2 Furious commenced in September 2002 and lasted until that December, with filming locations including Miami and the surrounding areas in southern Florida.
2 Fast 2 Furious premiered at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles on June 3, 2003, and was released in the United States on June 6, by Universal Pictures. The film received mostly negative reviews from critics, but grossed $236.4 million worldwide. A standalone sequel, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, was released in 2006.
Plot
Having aided wanted felon Dominic Toretto in LA, ex-LAPD officer Brian O'Conner has escaped to Miami and is in hiding, making a living street racing in events organized by his friend, mechanic Tej Parker. Brian is arrested following a race, and offered a deal by his former boss, FBI Special Agent Bilkins and Customs Enforcement Agent Markham. Brian is offered to have his record cleared by going undercover to help secure the arrest of Argentinian drug lord Carter Verone. Brian agrees on the condition he choose his partner. Brian enlists the help of estranged childhood friend, Roman Pearce, in Barstow. Roman, on house arrest for grand theft auto, is distrustful of Brian due to his time as a cop, and blames the latter for his own arrest, resulting in a scuffle. Roman reluctantly agrees on the condition he get the same deal.
Back in Miami, Customs Agent Monica Fuentes, who is undercover working for Verone, gets them an audience. After acquiring confiscated vehicles from an impound lot, Brian and Roman are informed Verone intends to smuggle money out of a house under surveillance in South Miami, and flee the country in his personal jet. An angry Brian and Roman relay this information to Markham, the latter of which nearly compromised their identities during the car heist. To prevent Markham from undermining the job, Brian and Roman acquire a 1969 Yenko Camaro SYC and 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T in a pink slip race from drivers they raced earlier. At a nightclub, Verone tortures MPD Detective Whitworth into giving the men a window to make their getaway. Afterwards, Roman confronts Brian about his attraction to Monica, believing she is dirty and the threat of Verone; the two patch up their differences. Monica warns Brian the next morning they will be killed after the drop. Regardless, Markham refuses to call off the mission.
On the day of the job, while Brian and Roman load the money with Verone's hitmen, Enrique and Roberto, riding along, Whitworth orders the police move in early, resulting in a police chase across the city. The pair lead the police to a warehouse where a scramble organized by Tej causes chaos. Brian and Roman elude the police in the muscle cars, while Tej and Suki, another street racer, are detained driving the police GPS-tagged vehicles. As Brian approaches the airfield, Enrique orders him to detour to the marina. At the same time, Roman ejects Roberto from his car with an improvised ejection seat using nitrous. At the airfield, Customs surround the plane but realizes they've been duped. At the marina, Verone reveals he was aware he was under surveillance and gave Monica false information. Verone orders Brian killed, and Monica onto his private yacht, intending to use her as leverage. Before Enrique can kill Brian, Roman arrives and the pair incapacitate him. Verone flees aboard the yacht, but is intercepted when Brian drives the Yenko off of a ramp and crashes into the deck. Brian, Roman, and Monica incapacitate and apprehend Verone.
Their deal upheld, Markham clears Brian and Roman's record, and Roman hands over Verone's cash. Brian and Roman agree to stay in Miami and move on, funded by a cut of the cash they kept for themselves.
Cast
Production
Development
Plans to make a sequel came about after the box office success of The Fast and the Furious, which grossed over $200 million worldwide. John Singleton had seen the first film and was awed by it, saying: "When I saw The Fast and the Furious, I was like, 'Damn, why didn't I think of that?' Growing up in South Central L.A., we had street races all the time." Singleton's rave reaction of the film as well as the culture of street racing in general influenced his decision to direct the sequel. The director also claimed that the concept of street racing could be something young audiences can relate to.
The screenplay was written by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, along with Gary Scott Thompson (the co-writer from the first film). There were two film treatments submitted early on, one of which did not involve Vin Diesel's character in the event the actor would not return for the sequel. Singleton credited Top Gun as a major influence for the film, particularly with regard to the action sequences.
Pre-production
Vin Diesel was offered $25 million to return in the sequel as Dominic Toretto. However, he refused after reading the screenplay as he felt that its potential was inferior compared to that of its predecessor; rather, he chose to appear in The Chronicles of Riddick instead. According to Variety magazine in 2015 he was less taken with what the screenwriters had in mind for the film, "They didn't take a Francis Ford Coppola approach to it. They approached it like they did sequels in the '80s and '90s, when they would drum up a new story unrelated for the most part, and slap the same name on it." However, Diesel reflected on his decision in a July 2014 report from Uproxx, saying: "I would've said, 'Don't walk away from it just because the script sucked in 2 Fast 2 Furious because there's an obligation to the audience to fight, no matter what, to make that film as good as possible.' ... I might have had a little bit more patience or belief in the long-term of it."
Paul Walker, who had just finished Timeline at the time, reprised his role in the second picture as Brian O'Conner. Tyrese Gibson, then known mononymously as Tyrese, also became a part of the cast having previously acted in Singleton's Baby Boy, which was the singer's feature film acting debut; he portrayed Roman Pearce. Ja Rule, another prominent rap artist who appeared in The Fast and the Furious, was originally tapped for the role of Tej Parker. Ja Rule was offered $500,000 for the role, which was more than what he had been paid to appear in The Fast and the Furious, $15,000. According to Singleton, "Ja got too big for himself. He turned it down. He turned down a half a million dollars. ... He was acting like he was too big to be in the sequel. He wouldn't return calls." The director then hired Chris "Ludacris" Bridges as a substitute. Bridges would later rise to prominence for appearing in the film and star in later films such as Crash and Hustle & Flow. Additional cast also included Cole Hauser as key villain Carter Verone, who appeared in Singleton's Higher Learning; Eva Mendes as undercover agent Monica Fuentes; and Devon Aoki as Suki, the sole female driver in the film.
Filming
Principal photography began in the fall of 2002, and Matthew F. Leonetti served as the director of photography. Filming was done mostly in various parts of South Florida such as Miami Beach, Seven Mile Bridge, and Homestead Air Reserve Base. Hauser's character's mansion was shot in Coral Gables, in a house owned by Sylvester Stallone. At Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, 2 Fast 2 Furious was filmed on one side, while Bad Boys II was filmed on the other side at the same time.
A car enthusiast himself, Walker drove a Nissan Skyline GT-R model R34 borrowed from the film's Technical Advisor, Craig Lieberman, in the film's opening scenes. Aoki did not have a driver's license or any driving experience prior to the film's production, and took driving lessons during filming; she drove a pink 2001 Honda S2000 AP1 in the film. Gibson drove a convertible Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder, while Michael Ealy drove a Toyota Supra Turbo MkIV model JZA80 that had been used by Walker in The Fast and the Furious.
Music
The musical score was composed by David Arnold. The soundtrack was released on May 27, 2003 on Def Jam Recordings, the same record label that Ludacris was signed to.
Release
2 Fast 2 Furious premiered at the Universal Amphitheatre on June 3, 2003. The short film The Turbo Charged Prelude for 2 Fast 2 Furious was released before select screenings and on special edition home releases of the first film.
Home media
2 Fast 2 Furious was released on DVD and VHS on September 30, 2003. It was later released on Blu-Ray on March 24, 2009 and 4K Ultra-HD on October 2, 2018.
Video game
A mobile game was released in 2004 by Digital Bridges.
Reception
Box office
2 Fast 2 Furious earned $52.1 million in its U.S. opening in 3,408 theaters, ranking first for the weekend above Finding Nemo. The film went on to score the fourth-highest June opening weekend, behind Batman Forever, Scooby-Doo and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. This was also the second consecutive Universal film of 2003 to make an opening weekend above $50 million, after Bruce Almighty. Furthermore, the film suprassed Shaft to have the highest opening weekend for a John Singleton film and XXX to have the biggest opening weekend for a Neal H. Moritz film respectively. During its second weekend, it fell behind Finding Nemo, making $19.1 million. Throughout its 133 days in release, the film reached a peak release of 3,418 theaters in the U.S. and earned $127.2 million in domestically. The film had the 15th largest US gross of 2003 and the 16th largest worldwide gross of 2003; combined with the international gross of $109.2 million, the film earned $236.4 million worldwide.
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, 2 Fast 2 Furious has an approval rating of 36% based on 162 reviews and an average rating of 4.80/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Beautiful people and beautiful cars in a movie that won't tax the brain cells." On Metacritic it has a weighted average score of 38 out of 100 based on reviews from 36 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on scale of A+ to F.
Todd McCarthy of Variety magazine wrote: "While this John Singleton-directed sequel provides a breezy enough joyride, it lacks the unassuming freshness and appealing neighborhood feel of the economy-priced original."
Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club wrote: "Singleton abandons the underground racing subculture that gave the first film its allure, relying instead on lazy thriller plotting that's only a bag of donuts and a freeze-frame away from the average TV cop show." USA Todays Mike Clark gave film 2 out of 4, and wrote "The movie is all about racing, and character be damned, though the still dazed-looking Walker and Tyrese finally get a little rapport going after a worn-out story's very rocky start." He concludes "Lack of pretension helps the viewer get over the fact that this is just another retread." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 and said, "It doesn't have a brain in its head, but it's made with skill and style and, boy, it is fast and furious." In 2018, Derek Lawrence of the Entertainment Weekly called it "the forgotten Fast and Furious gem" and praised the chemistry between Walker and Gibson and John Singleton's direction. In 2019, Bilge Eberi of Vulture also praised the movie especially Singleton's direction.
In 2014, John Singleton said:"It was awesome. The heads of the studio at the time were just like, just make it fun, make it cool, make it this gen. I didn't do all that techno music that they did in the first movie. I used nothing but Southern Hip Hop which was like the rage at the time. I just funked it up, I made it more multi-ethnic. They kind of followed the paradigm that I set up. What we're going to do here is Paul [Walker]'s character—God bless his soul — Paul Walker is going to be edgy. He's going to be more like a bad boy. That was the film where he was the star. That was the movie where he was the star of the picture because we didn't have Vin [Diesel]. It was a real fun experience."
Accolades
Sequel
After failing to secure the returns of Diesel, Walker, or any other member of the original cast, Universal ordered a standalone sequel, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Moritz returned and hired director Justin Lin, who would go on to direct several subsequent installments in the series.
References
External links
2003 films
2003 action thriller films
2000s chase films
2003 crime thriller films
2000s heist films
2000s road movies
American action thriller films
American chase films
American crime thriller films
American heist films
American road movies
American sequel films
2000s English-language films
Fast & Furious films
Fictional portrayals of the Miami-Dade Police Department
Films about automobiles
Films directed by John Singleton
Films produced by Neal H. Moritz
Films scored by David Arnold
Films set in California
Films set in Miami
Films shot in Miami
Original Film films
Films with screenplays by Gary Scott Thompson
Universal Pictures films
2000s American films
San Bernardino County, California in fiction